This sort of empowerment is vital in companies seeking rapid growth since it’s often easier to promote somebody who already understands your company than to bring somebody new into the fold.

In our experience, leaders who micromanage are inherently insecure. They don’t believe that their organizations can survive without them, and due to their over-involvement that could ultimately become the case. A true leader neither needs nor wants to be absolutely critical to his organization in this manner.

True leaders seek to empower their teams with the resources needed to do the job and step back into more of a mentoring role. The easiest way to determine whether you’re a micromanager or a leader may be to leave things alone for a day and see what happens. If the fires manage to put themselves out, you’ve likely done a good job empowering your staff. If you have issues that couldn’t be resolved, you have some idea of where there’s room for improvement.